Steve Kerr questions the NBA's rulebook on handling technical fouls in the playoffs

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OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 27: Golden State Warriors’ Kevin Durant (35) congratulates Draymond Green (23) on his 3-point basket against the Portland Trail Blazers during over time of a NBA game at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2017. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

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LOS ANGELES – If the Warriors advance to the NBA Finals for a fifth consecutive year, coach Steve Kerr already anticipates Kevin Durant and Draymond Green could compromise the team’s ability to win its fourth NBA title in five seasons.

“If we go to the Finals, I think Kevin and Draymond are each on pace for about 42 technicals and six suspensions,” Kerr said. “Hopefully we can withstand that.”

Kerr said those words with obvious sarcasm. He has a point, though.

The Warriors enter Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Houston Rockets on Sunday at Oracle Arena with more concerns than just how Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are holding up with their sprained right ankle. Both Green and Durant collected two technical fouls during the Warriors six-game first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers. That leaves them five technicals away from drawing a one-game suspension.

“Kevin and Draymond have a good feel for when they reach that number,” Kerr said. “They generally are able to shut that off and shut that emotion off when they need to stay on the floor. That will be important.”

Perhaps easier said than done. Kerr maintained he has no concerns on whether Durant and Green can temper their reactions to calls they do not like. There is another problem, though. Kerr has disagreed for the reasons both players received technicals during the playoffs.

With 6:02 left in the fourth quarter of the Warriors’ Game 6 win over the Clippers on Friday, Green was called for his second technical of the postseason after questioning a foul on Clippers guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Green approached official David Guthrie about the call, only to receive a technical shortly after.

Kerr called Green’s foul “a questionable call” because “he had good verticality.” Kerr also considered Green’s technical to be “quick.”

“He ran over and said, ‘Tell me what I have to do to defend that better,’” Kerr said. “He got a T. I was surprised.”

Kerr had argued that Durant and Patrick Beverley should not have received two double technicals that entailed trash talk as well as Durant leering over Beverley after bumping him out of bounds. Kerr also said Green was only trying to spark energy in the home crowd when he disputed an offensive foul on Beverley, whom Kerr said had flopped.

“We got to understand we have to be on alert because the rules are the rules in terms of the suspension and all that stuff,” Kerr said. “We have to make sure we’re keeping our guys are out on the floor.”

Kerr wished it had never come to this. He repeated his criticism of the NBA’s rule book on how it handles technical fouls during the playoffs. The technical foul and flagrant foul point total accumulates through each round of the postseason.

“I will never understand the rule that everybody falls under the exact same category,” Kerr said. “Whether you lose in four games in the first round or you play 25 games through the Finals, it’s the same technical foul points that leads to a suspension. It seems strange.”

Hence, Kerr said that “in the offseason we’ve talked a little bit” among team and league officials. The Warriors did not like the NBA’s response. As Kerr said, “you’re not going to get a lot of sympathy in this case.”

What should be the NBA’s ruling be?

“I don’t know. That’s a good question,” Kerr said. “Series-by-series or maybe every two series. The way it is now it doesn’t make a ton of sense. I would like to see it revisited. But that’s coming from a guy with a team that has a lot of technical fouls and plays deep in the playoffs. So I’m a little biased.”